Being a queer teen may be one of the hardest things in the world. You’re confused, lonely and often on the receiving end of some pretty rude insults. Luckily for Portland teens Maika Rich and Jocelyn O’Neal, they found one another and started a little lesbian love affair. Not surprisingly, not everyone’s down with their struggle for stability. What is surpising, however, is that one such person – a city bus driver – used their faggotry to kick them to the curb.
Portland’s KOMO-TV reports:

[The girls] say a female passenger complained to the driver about the kissing and that the driver told them to “knock it off” and also called them “sickos.”

Rich says she then gave O’Neal a hug because it appeared she was upset about the exchange.

They say at that point the driver stopped the bus and ordered them off.

The girls say they are used to being picked on at school but felt defenseless against an adult.

The girls – who were on their way Sexual Minority Youth Recreation Center – are now considering filing a formal complaint against the city bus line, TriMet. A TriMet official claims they have a strict policy of not booting youth or other vulnerable people. While the driver’s still on the pay roll, they pledge a “full investigation”, whatever that means.

I think it’s sweet that the girls are holding hands in their publicity photo, though. Awww, young love…

Jun 12, 2007 at 11:56 am · @Reply ·

rzezula

Regarding our daughter being removed from a TriMet bus last week. We are appreciative of the support and understanding of the other points of view (to a point, this is my kid and her girlfriend we’re talking about). The girls have said, though it’s not juicy enough to have been aired or reported, that they of course accept responsibility for not thinking their actions would offend or even be watched.

In their teen-age minds, they were in the very back of the bus with no one able to see them. The passenger who complained was 5 rows away from them and had to turn completely around to watch them. But the girls are the sickos. Teenagers have the remarkable ability to only be able to see what’s in front of them at the moment.

I suspect that none of the critics ever made mistakes in their lives and that they were perfect teen-agers who followed societal rules all of the time, never tested boundaries and made the absolutely 100% appropriate choices. They have obviously never offended another soul without thinking. Certainly, if they accidentally had, absolute strangers who were trusted with their safety were allowed to hit at them, call them names and throw them away like garbage. Taught them a better lesson than it would have if that stranger had followed their own set of rules and called a supervisor to remove them from the bus and call their parents to come get them. This perfection of being is, I assume, what allows them to judge the girls and others. In comparison to themselves, it’s hard to live up to such perfection.

Our family’s biggest concern in all of this has been, the driver’s motivation aside, that they were treated like criminals for doing something that (while admittedly making people uncomfortable and absolutely going against our own family’s rules, for their own safety if nothing else) was not a crime, nor against any written policy of passenger conduct on the bus. Also of issue is that they did stop the behavior they believed they were told to stop. They were not kissing when told to get off of the bus, against company rules.

In any event, time will tell what will happen. Our main hope was to send a message that if you choose to work and live with other humans, you should expect to be offended every once in a while. If one wishes to remain unscathed their entire lives, I have a private island in Nowhere Land for sale. Sadly, people are by nature offensive at times. Especially young people, who are truly hardwired to test social boundaries. We would have welcomed a call to come pick-up our kids for their behavior on the bus, as policy dictates. We could have then safely applied consequences, thereby teaching them an actual lesson about putting themselves on public display. In this world, that is still dangerous. The only thing the driver got across is that adults can behave however they want to, even against the rules, if their emotions cause them to lose control.

We’d just like to see * non-threatening * kids dealt with in a far more humane manner. Maybe a warning of the possible consequences first, or exact instructions on what behavior is expected to stop. How about following the rules if you feel you just can not tolerate the behavior? Chances are, the rules were not followed because someone knew they were doing the wrong thing. I don’t get to touch, insult or throw-out my company’s clients because they have personally offended me or another client. The adult paid to be in control should have remained in control. If drivers can not safely deal with non-safety issues when working with the public, then whomever personally offends one on any given day can expect to be mistreated for being human and simply making a poor judgment call. Which is sad.